Spotted on Strava: Tour Emotion + the Ultimate Ironman

Multi-Sport

Michal Kwiatkowski wins Etape 13 of the 2023 Tour de France. Photography by: A.S.O. / Pauline Ballet

From the Tour de France to the Colorado backcountry... by way of (a lot of) local swimming pools in the UK, there's been plenty of activities catching our attention on Strava this week...

Tour de France

While the battle between Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar continues to dominate headlines around the world, it was Michal Kwiatkowski who secured an emotional second Tour de France stage win at the top of Grand Colombier on Friday. Kwiatkowski rode away from the lead group with one kilometre of the climb to go to secure a sensational win.

Needless to say, the battle for Yellow is far from over and with a few critical stages coming up. Not sure who to follow? Check out all of the riders on Strava here.

Ultra efforts around the world

You might not have head of Lorick Buclin, but that will likely change in the coming years. The 16-year-old took an impressive win in the Eiger Ultra Trail E16 in a field that contained none other than Kilian Jornet. It's true that Jornet, who finished 48th, is coming back from injury and entered the race to stamp his ticket for UTMB in August, but 16-years-old...!

Meanwhile in the 100km race, German athletes took the honours in the men's and women's events. Hannes Namberger won the men's race in 11:38:35 - 25 minutes ahead of second placed Raphael Sprenger. In the women's race, Katharina Hartmuth secured the win (13:17:32) with an identical margin of victory over second-placed Virginie Quiodoz (13:41:38).

Meanwhile, over at the Hardrock 100 in the USA, Courtney Daulwater smashed the women's record by over an hour, finishing in 26:14:08. The win sealed a remarkable back-to-back for Daulwater, who just three weeks earlier broke the course record at Western States (15:29:33).

In the men's race Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz secured the eighth fastest time in the history of the race, finishing in 23:00:07.

The Ultimate Ironman + Nolan's 14 FKT shattered

For many, completing a single Ironman is the crowning achievement of their athletic careers. For Sean Conway, it's just another day 'at the office'. Conway is into the final week of his latest epic challenge: to complete 102 Ironman back-to-back.

As a quick refresher on what an Ironman is, athletes combine a 2.4 mile (3.9km) swim, 112 mile (180.2km) bike and 26.2 mile (42.2km) run. Shaun is doing that 102 times in 102 days. Ouch.

In Paris, Fanny Del Reyer began the epic challenge of completing the route of the 1903 Tour de France. You can read about that attempt here.

Meanwhile, David Hedges secured a new FKT (Fastest Known Time) on Colorado's Nolan's 14. Nolan's 14 involves connecting fourteen peaks, each over 14,000 feet (4,260 meters) high in Colorado's Sawatch Range. In completing the challenge, Hedges racked up 45,493 vertical feet (13,897 meters) over the course of 94 miles (151.48km) in an incredible time of 39:06:40.

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